Textile drafting mechanism



Aug- 6, 1957 G. c; ANDERsoN ErAL 2,801,448 TEXTILE DRAFTING MECHNISMFiled Dec. 19, 1955 f A Wifi' M y M 46.2...-

United States Patent O p 2,801,448 TEXTILE DRAFTING MEcnANrsM Gordon C.Anderson, Biddeford, and Garfield! B. Ingraham, Falmouth, Maine,assguors to Saco-Lowell Shops, Boston, Mass., a' corporation' of MaineApplication December 19', 1955, Serial No. 553,775

Claims. (Cl. Ivg-135) This invention relates to textiledrafting-elements of the type used on spinning and roving frames andmore particularly to novel Supporting and weighting structures for thedrafting rolls of such elements.

In application Serial No. 487,912, filed February 14, 1955, now PatentNo. 2,750,340, is shown and described a drafting element top rollsupporting and weighting structure of the type having an overlyingsupport member with a plurality of top roll weighting arms mountedthereon for engaging the top rolls, said -arms being mounted for lateralswinging movement to permit selfalinement of the rolls and being loadedby means of coil compression springs interposed between said arms andthe overlying Vsupport member. Although such structure is entirelysatisfactory in cases where conventional weighting forces are to beapplied to the rolls, it has been found that where high weighting forcesof the order of 40 pounds are used, as particularly on the front rollsof high draft spinning and roving frames, slight errors in themanufacture of springs or other components occasionally cause sideforces to be applied to the mounting arms of sufficient magnitude tocause initial later-al misalinement of the arms great enough to preventselfalinement of the rolls.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide novelmeans for adjustably correcting the side force producing errors of suchcompression springs or other components so that self-alinement of evenheavily weighted rolls readily takes place.

For the purpose of more fully describing further features and objects ofthe invention, reference is now made to the following specificationwherein 'is described preferred embodiments thereof, together with the`accompanying drawings.

ln the drawings: y

Fig. l is a cross-sectional side elevation of a drafting element toproll supporting and weighting structure having the novel means of theinvention for adjustably correcting compression spring side forceproducing errors;

Figs. 2 and 3 are enlarged end and side elevational views respectively,showing a first embodiment of the means of this invention;

Fig. 4 is isometric view of a part of the means of Figs. 2 and 3;

Figs. 5 and 6 are enlarged end and side elevational views respectively,showing la second embodiment of the means of this invention; and

Fig. 7 is an isometric view of a part of the means of Figs. 5 and 6.

Referring to the drawings, the construction therein shown comprisesbottom front and rear rolls 2 and 3, respectively, suitably mounted inbearings on the frame of the machine, top rolls 4 and 5 cooperating withsaid respective bottom rolls to perform the drafting operation, and anintermediate control mechanism including a bottom roll 6 driving anapron 7, the latter being guided over an apron bar 8 and held stretchedby the usual tension pulley (not shown). A top roll 12 supported by thement in a vertical plane.

Vice

apron bar 8 and the bottom roll 6 depresses the apron 7 therebetween,the degree of such depression being determined by adjustment of thehorizontal spacing between the slides (not shown) supporting the apronbar 8 and bottom roll 6 respectively.

The top `rolls 4, 5, and 12 are weighted by an overlying cantileversheet metal support member of generally inverted U shape with a top 14and sides 16 mounted for vertical swinging movement about a fixed shaft18 on the machine frame at the rear portion thereof. Said support memberis normally positioned rigidly over the bot-` tom rolls 2, 3, and 7 bymeans of a toggle mechanism, but such mechanism may be released and thesupport member swung upwardly in a vertical plane about its shaft 18 toprovide access to the drafting frame.

In order to support and weight the front and intermediate top rolls 4and 12, a long rear arm comprising a pair of side members 20 and a frontinterconnecting member 22 is provided. The side members of said arm aremounted on a shaft 24 extending between support member sides 16 at therear end thereof for pivotal move- The rear arm extends forwardly in agenerally parallel relationship to the support member with its sidemembers 20 inside of and closely. adjacent to sides 16 thereof to engageits forward longitudinally extended end connecting member 22 with thearbor of intermediate top control roll 12. Extending transverselybetween the side members 20 of said long rear arm is a shaft 26 havingtherein a vertically extending tapped hole for receiving the threadedportion of adjusting screw 28. The upper portion of said screw extendsfreely through a hole in the top 14 of the over-V lying support memberand has an enlarged head of greater diameter than that of said holeadapted to engage said top and so limit the extent of downward travel ofsaid arm.

The lower end of said screw loosely supports the rear end of forwardlarm 30 which arm extends forwardly in a generally parallel relationshipto the support member to engage its forward end bearings with the arborof front top roll 4. The loose support is provided by ya ball bear-l ing32 mounted on the end of screw 2S beneath the arm 30 to permittransverse swinging movement for self-alinement of the rolls as well asvertical swinging movement. The forward arm passes above the forwardinterconnecting end member 22 of the rear arm `and is out of contacttherewith. In order to provide loading pressure for the top rolls 4 and12 engaged by the rst and second arms respectively, a pair of helicalcoil compression springs 34 are interposed between the upper surface -offorward larm 30 and the lower surface of top 14 of the support memberthereon, such springs pressing downwardly on said arms to engage saidtop rolls with their cooperating bottom rolls.

According to the present invention, a rotatably ad` justable member suchas a circular washer generally designated 36 is provided for correctingside force errors of springs 34 due to manufacturing Vinaccuracies ofsaid springs or other components, as for example, with a spring, endfaces not perpendicular to the axis of the spring, and/or end faces notparallel to one another or with other components, top 14 and arm 30 notperpendicular to the spring axis, for instance. Such members 36 arepreferably positioned adjacent the end of springs 34 between the lowerends of said springs and the upper surface of arm 30 and are adapted tobe rotated to tilt or move the spring end for alinement of the armsafter the drafting element has been installed in a spinning or rovingframe so that the rolls will readily self-aline.

More specically, and referring to Figs. 2 through 4, as a firstembodiment, such a washer 36 may have a slanted or wedge-shaped upperspring seating face 38 with a cen- Patented Aug. 6, ']vv in the lowerend of spring 34 for positioning it. As a" second embodiment, the washer36 may have a flat upper spring seating face 38' with upwardly extendingcir- Cillar lug 40'- positioned eccentrically thereto on` said springseating surface. In either case, such washer is rotatably positioned onthe upper surface of arm 30 by a rotatable coaxial downwardly extendingcircular lug 42 which tits into a cooperating hole 44 in arm 30, and aCentral hole 46 is provided in washer 36 for engagement by a suitablewrench for rotating the washer to a desired position. The upper end ofsprings 34 are positioned on the lower surface of support member top 14by downwardly extending lugs 48 therein, and a suitable hole 50 isprovided in each of said lugs for access to washer 36 by said wrench.The rear top roll is supported and weighted by a short third arm 52loosely mounted by a ball bearing 54 for both vertical and horizontalswinging movement on a bracket 56 attached to top 14 of the supportmember by means of a screw 58 longitudinally adjustable in a slot 60therein, and is provided with suitable bearings for engaging the arborof rear top roll 5. A loading spring 62 is interposed between the uppersurface of arm 52 and the lower surface of bracket 56 to engage saidroll in c0- operating relationship with its bottom roll 3.

Preferably, a rotatably adjustable washer 36 as llereinbefore describedis provided interposed between the end of spring 62 and arm 52 forcorrecting side force producing errors of said spring on the arm 52,although such is not as important as on the forward rolls 4 and 12 duet'o the substantially lower loading employed on back roll 5. As shown,the rear washer 36 must be rotated from below rather than above.

In operation then, the supporting and weighting member 14, when lockedinto operative position overlying bottom rolls 2, 3, and 6, provides arigid cantilever support against which loading springs 34 and 62 will becompressed to engage the top rolls with their respective bottom rolls.

The forces imposed on the weighting arms 20, 30, and 56 due to theinaccuracies in the manufacture of springs and other parts V34 and 62can be corrected by rotating washers 36 and 36', respectively, by asuitable wrench until the undesirable lateral forces are no longerpresent as Will be indicated by the central alinement of the rolls, itbeing understood that forward or rearward tilting or displacement ofsprings 34 and 62 will not affect lateral alinement so that the degreeof correction can be varied between a maximum and zero to achieve thedesired value. Thus, as shown in Fig. 2, tilting of the roll and of aspring by washer 36 will tend to bulge it to provide a desired degree ofcorrection, while sidewise displacement of a roll and of a spring, asshown in Fig. 5, will tend to tilt it to provide the desired degree ofcorrection.

Thus it will be seen that the invention has provided a novel draftingelement top roll weighting and supporting arrangement wherein uniformadjustment for initial selfalinement may be achieved irrespective of themanufacturing inaccuracies of the coil springs or other componentsemployed with the structure as loading means. The term rolls" as usedherein is intended to include known tber Control elements such as, forexample, of the overlying short apron type wherein 'supporting cagerather than directly to the top roll assothe weight is applied to theciated therewith. Various other modifications of the invention withinthe spirit thereof and the scope of the appended claims will occur tothose skilled in the art.

We claim:

1. In a supporting and weighting structure for the top rolls of textiledrafting mechanisms wherein a support member extends over at least onepair of top rolls, a weighting arm for said top rolls mounted on saidsupport member for self-alining swinging movement, coil spring loadingmeans interposed between said arm and said support member, and meanspositioned at one end of said coil spring and mounted for rotationindependently'thereof for correcting side force producing errors of saidspring loading means causing lateral misalinement of said arm.

2. In a structure as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means forcorrecting includes wedge means positioned at one end of said coilspring to tilt said spring end.

3. In a structure as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means forcorrecting includes eccentric means positioned at one end of said coilspring to move said spring end.

4. In a supporting and weighting structure for a textile draftingmechanism having a plurality of pairs of top and bottom rolls positionedto act successively on a sliver, a support member overlying said bottomrolls, a plurality of weighting arms supported on said member ingenerally parallel relationship thereto for limited self-aliningswinging movement, coil spring loading means interposed between saidmember and said arms for pressing a top roll engaged by an arm intocooperating relationship with its respective bottom roll, and a wedgemember with a plane slanted spring seating face mounted for rotationindependently of said coil spring cooperating with one end of said coilspring for correcting side force producing errors of said coil springloading means causing lateral misalinement of said arm by rotation ofsaid member to tilt said spring end.

, 5. In a supporting and weighting structure for a textile draftingmechanism having a plurality of pairs of top and bottom rolls positionedto act successively on a sliver, a support member overlying said bottomrolls, a plurality of weighting arms supported on said member ingenerally parallel relationship thereto for limited self-aliningswinging movement, coil spring loading means interposed between saidmember and said arms for pressing a top roll engaged by an arm intocooperating relationship with its respective bottom roll, and aneccentric member mounted for eccentric rotation independently of saidcoil spring cooperating with one end of said coil spring for correctingside force producing errors of said coil spring loading means causinglateral misalinement of said arm by rotation of said member to displacesaid spring end.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS129,155 Middleton, Ir July 16, 1872 245,665 Scott Aug. 16, 18811,595,317 Scholey Aug. 10, 1926 2,506,218 Ingram May 2, 1950 2,746,095Dausch May 22, 1956 2,758,340 Anderson Aug. 14, 1956

